The present invention relates to a controlled lamp device comprising a light housing having a light exit opening, a sensor unit for detecting a contactless manual intervention by an operator of the lamp device in an intervention region, and an evaluation and control device for evaluating the intervention of the operator that is detected by the sensor unit and for influencing a control parameter for the operation of the lamp device depending on a result of the evaluation.
Lamp devices in general are known from the prior art.
Lamp devices, in particular desk lamps and table lamps, are normally switched on or off by way of a switch that is manually operated by an operator. This manual activation of a switch represents not only a basic hygiene problem but also a potential hazard. Common lamp devices produce a high power loss in the form of heat and some of their surfaces heat up in such a way that an operator, who reaches out near to the switch to be operated and touches one of the hot surfaces, may suffer scalding. In the case of lamps with metal parts which can be touched by an operator, there is also a risk that in the event of a defect in the lamp device, the operator may suffer an electrical shock. Added to this is the fact that the mechanical components of a switch that is to be operated manually by an operator are prone to error and are subject to mechanical ageing processes.
To overcome these problems, different approaches to the contactless de-/activation of a lamp device are known from the prior art. In the case of passive infrared detector-controlled lamp devices, the heat emission of an object moving in a detection region of the passive infrared detector is used. A differential amplifier is used to detect a temporal motion of a heat-radiating object.
Further options include, for example, a high-frequency Doppler radar-based solution, which detects a frequency shift, caused by a movement of a detection object, of a frequency beam which is emitted for detection purposes.
The contactlessly controlled lamp devices in the prior art technology cited above are all liable to problems. The passive infrared detection suffers from a strong dependence of the detection properties on the direction of motion of a heat-radiating object relative to the measuring direction of the sensor. While changes in temperature caused by objects moving laterally to the passive infrared sensor can be readily detected as heat radiation scattered by a lens structure onto two heat sensors, movements of a thermally radiating object moving directly towards the sensor are very difficult to detect. Moreover, the accuracy of passive infrared detection is strongly dependent on the spatial size of the heat-radiating object and its temperature relative to the ambient temperature. The calibration of a passive infrared detector can usually only be effected by setting a sensitivity threshold. In the case of the high-frequency Doppler radar-based solution the object to be detected must be moving with a minimum speed. Consequently, a slow movement below this minimum speed with the high-frequency Doppler frequency radar-based solution cannot be detected in principle.
The above listed lamp devices of generic kind enable a contactless and motion-initiated de-/activation of a respective lamp device. These known controlled lamp devices suffer from the above-mentioned disadvantages however, in particular the direction dependency of the detection sensitivity, the inaccuracy of the movement or gesture detection and/or the necessary minimum speed of the movement being executed.